Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Study links obesity to kidney failure

Researchers have found yet another reason for people to watch their weight: kidney failure.

A University of California at San Francisco study released on Monday found a strong relationship between obesity and end-stage renal disease, or kidney failure.

"There are more and more people with kidney failure, but it hasn't been appreciated much that kidney failure can be a consequence of obesity," said Dr. Chi-yuan Hsu, an assistant professor of medicine and lead author of the study.

Even moderately overweight people had a higher risk of kidney failure than people whose weight was in a normal, healthy range, he said. And for the morbidly obese, the risk was more than 700 percent greater, Hsu said.

When the kidneys fail, and cannot process waste and excess fluid, the patient requires dialysis or transplantation.